Facebook fan page: the effect of perceived socialness in consumer–brand communication

Facebook has become an important platform for a brand–consumer relationship channel. The current study investigates the influence of perceived socialness and its effect on consumers’ attitude toward brands. Participants (N = 404) were recruited in a large southeast university. A 2 (socialness: high vs. low)?×?2 (feedback control: high vs. low)?×?2 (brand image: high vs. low) between-subject design was conducted. The results of this study identified three important findings. First, high (vs. low) socialness elicited higher perceived relationship commitment, brand trust, and more favorable brand attitude. Second, the effect of socialness on brand attitude was moderated by brand image (positive vs. negative). Third, the mediation analysis showed that the effect of socialness (high vs. low) on brand attitude was fully mediated by perceived relationship commitment and brand trust.     

The Effects of Native Ads on Consumer Brand Engagement: The Moderating Role of Website Credibility

Abstract

This research examined the effect of native ads on consumer brand engagement – specifically, how source disclosure of ad sponsors affected consumers’ perceived ad deceptiveness as well as their attitude toward the company and the brand. It also explored the moderating role of website credibility. One hundred and ten college students in South Korea participated in the experimental study, which found that high source disclosure of ad sponsors positively affected perceived deceptiveness. The effect of source disclosure on perceived deceptiveness was moderated by website credibility. Perceived deceptiveness negatively affected consumers’ attitude toward the company and the brand. The mediating role of perceived deceptiveness between source disclosure and consumer brand engagement was confirmed only when website credibility was high. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as suggestions for future research in this area.     

The Effects of Credible Online Reviews on Brand Equity Dimensions and Its Consequence on Consumer Behavior

Consumers are using social media platform to gain and share knowledge on brands. In the virtual environment, consumers are exposed to various online reviews on brands that leave an impression of brands on the minds of the consumers. The present study combines Yale attitude change model and attribution theory to examine the effects of credible online reviews on brand equity dimensions. The present study views, through the lens of Yale attitude change model, the various factors that affect credibility evaluation of online reviews. Further, attribution theory is used as the theoretical backbone to analyze the effects of credible online reviews on brand equity dimensions and finally on purchase intention. This study uses structural equations modeling (SEM) to investigate the impact of online credible reviews on customer based brand equity (CBBE) dimensions and its consequence on consumer behavior (purchase intention). Results indicate that source and review quality are the most important factors that affect consumer's credibility evaluation of a review. Online credible reviews have more significant impact on brand awareness, perceived value and organizational associations and thus leads to consumer's purchase intention in the context of consumer electronic products in India.     

The Effects of Corporate-Brand Credibility,Perceived Corporate-Brand Origin,and Self-Image Congruence on Purchase Intention: Evidence From China's Auto Industry

This study aims to investigate the effects of corporate-brand credibility, perceived corporate-brand origin, and self-image congruence on purchase intention. A cross-city survey of China's automobile industry was conducted in four major Mainland cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu). Results reveal that corporate-brand credibility, perceived corporate-brand origin, and self-image congruence have direct positive impacts on purchase intention. Furthermore, corporate-brand credibility and self-image congruence both act as moderating variables in the relationship between corporate-brand origin and purchase intention. Corporate-brand credibility is more significant in influencing consumers’ purchase intention toward the brand than perceived corporate-brand origin.     

Can we find the right balance in cause‐related marketing? Analyzing the boundaries of balance theory in evaluating brand‐cause partnerships

Cause‐related marketing (CRM) refers to the phenomenon where brands partner with causes, such as nonprofit organizations. Consumers may see some CRM partnerships as less compatible than others, however the level of perceived compatibility differs from one consumer to another. We know a great deal about how perceptions of compatibility affect attitude and behavior toward CRM partnerships, but we know less about how to predict a consumer's perception of compatibility. Therefore, our purpose was to investigate the boundaries in which balance theory could be used to make predictions about consumers’ responses to CRM partnerships. This is the first study to consider the construct of attitude strength (vs. attitude alone) when considering balance theory. We found that a consumer's attitude toward a brand, along with their attitude toward a cause, predicts their perceptions of CRM compatibility. We also found that CRM triadic balance could be predicted when attitude strength was included in the models, and that balance theory allowed us to observe preliminary evidence of attitude and attitude strength spillover effects in CRM triads. Practitioners can use these insights to determine which organizations to partner with, as well as determine how advertising these partnerships may affect acceptance of these partnerships.     

Following brands on Twitter: an extension of theory of planned behavior

Due to its immediacy and efficiency, Twitter has recently emerged as a form of marketing communication tool that offers unique advantages for two-way communication between marketers and consumers. This study examines brand-following behavior on Twitter using the Ajzen's model of theory of planned behavior (TPB). Results show that attitude toward brand following, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and brand attachment are positively associated with intention to follow brands on Twitter. Consumers’ intention to create (i.e., intention to tweet at brands) and disseminate (i.e., intention to retweet the links of brands) brand-related information, as well as purchase intention, are the outcomes of intention to follow brands on Twitter. Overall findings suggest that TPB model can be used to predict Twitter users’ brand-following behavior. More importantly, our finding that brand attachment drives consumer intention to follow brands on Twitter extends the TPB framework. This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications.     

Functional matching effect in CRM: Moderating roles of perceived message quality and skepticism

By applying the functional matching effect to the domain of cause-related marketing (CRM), this study examined the conditions under which the CRM message matching to attitude bases would elicit greater persuasion. In this study, a matched (or mismatched) CRM message is represented by the ad message featuring an argument that matches (or mismatches) consumers' primary motivation for purchasing the product supporting a social cause. Using a before-and-after experimental design, the perceived message quality and consumer skepticism about CRM practices were tested as moderators of the relationship between the functional matching of arguments and persuasion. This study assessed persuasion by measuring attitudes toward the CRM ad and the brand, and purchase intention. As expected, the functionally matched message appeared to generate greater persuasion when the argument was perceived to be strong. Additionally, low skeptics showed more favorable responses to the matched message compared to high skeptics. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed to enhance the persuasiveness of CRM messages.     

Get in the Game: The Effects of Game-Product Congruity and Product Placement Proximity on Game Players’ Processing of Brands Embedded in Advergames

This study focused on the effects of game-product congruity and product placement proximity on advergame players’ brand memory, brand attitude, game enjoyment, and future intention to play. A 2 (congruity) × 2 (proximity) repeated-measures experiment was used. Results revealed that players’ implicit memory improved for congruent games only. Explicit memory measures also showed signs of improvement for brands in the congruent/central game condition. Surprisingly, it appears that the incongruent/peripheral game condition produced the best results overall with the smallest negative attitude change, the most game enjoyment, and the highest intention to play again in the future. These contradictory findings suggest to brand marketers who design advergames to be careful when combining multiple game featurescongruity and proximity) within a single advergame because this strategic move may provide optimal brand memory while also producing the opposite desired effect for attitude toward the brand, game enjoyment, and intention to play.     

An exploration of celebrity business ventures and their appeal to fans and non-fans

Recently, an increasing number of celebrities have launched their own businesses. Although celebrity entrepreneurs may expect their credibility to enhance customers’ purchase intentions, this study does not find this effect. Instead, it finds that customers’ purchase intentions rely mainly on customers’ attitudes toward the celebrity's venture brand. Customers’ perceived congruence between a celebrity and the celebrity's business significantly affects their brand attitudes. Additionally, this study finds that a celebrity's credibility can only increase fans’ positive attitudes toward the celebrity's venture brand; therefore, being a celebrity entrepreneur is riskier than being a brand endorser in terms of consumer attitude.     

Marketing eco-fashion: The influence of brand name and message explicitness

This study investigated the influence of two variables – brand name and message explicitness – on attitude toward advertisement and attitude toward brand, and further, explored the impact of attitude toward advertisement, attitude toward brand, and other variables on consumer purchase intention. A questionnaire with an experimental design component was administered to 343 college students. Results revealed that respondents formed positive attitudes toward apparel brand when the advertising message contained explicit information about environmentally friendly products. Attitude toward brand, subjective norm, attitude toward advertisement, eco-fashion involvement, and environmental commitment were strong predictors of intention to purchase an environmentally friendly apparel brand. Implications are that apparel marketers may build more positive attitudes toward brands by providing explicit information about environmentally friendly products in their marketing claims. This may be one way for marketers to attract college students who are interested in purchasing environmentally friendly products, but who are not fully committed to a green lifestyle. Further, marketers may be able to reach those who are less interested in purchasing environmentally friendly products by raising awareness and knowledge of the benefits associated with their products and brands, which may help to establish a sustainable market for eco-fashion.     

Beyond brand attitude: Individual drivers of purchase for symbolic cobranded products

Cobranding, or the use of two brand names on a single product, generally coincides with higher purchase intentions. Prior research focuses on ingredient co-branding and suggests that attitude toward both the primary and the secondary brands and congruence between the brands are important drivers of cobranded products' success. This research shows that self-congruity with the secondary brand and need for uniqueness have significant positive impacts on symbolic co-branding purchase, in addition to perceived congruence and attitude toward the primary brand. In contrast, attitude toward the secondary brand does not relate to purchase of symbolic cobranded products. Therefore, managers should rely on self-congruity, instead of attitude toward the secondary brand, when choosing a partner for symbolic cobranded products. Moreover, product category involvement enhances the impact of self-congruity on purchase intent.     

Modeling the Effects of Green Advertising on Brand Image: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Product Involvement Using Structural Equation

ABSTRACT

?This experimental study examined consumers’ response to green advertising for high- and low-involvement products by measuring its effect on consumers’ intention to purchase such brands. The present study enhances our understanding of the moderating role of product involvement and extends the structural equation tests of the four causal models. A dataset of 169 respondents is used to examine the role of brand image and brand attitude in the context of green advertisements. Consistent with earlier findings, the suggested model provides a good fit of the data and results indicate that positive attitude toward green advertisements, brand image, and attitude toward the brand enhances the chances of consumers’ purchase intention of such brands. The study also verifies that product involvement moderates the positive relationship between attitude toward green advertisements and brand image such that at higher levels of product involvement, attitude toward green advertisements has a stronger effect on brand image.     

What affects the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement? Impact of interplay among congruence,identification, and attribution

This study draws upon congruence theory, identification theory, and attribution theory as a means of examining how celebrity endorsement works. The study proposes that the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement may be influenced by the following three factors: congruence between a celebrity endorser and endorsed brand/product, identification with a celebrity endorser, and consumers’ attribution styles (i.e., internal vs. external). To test the proposed hypotheses, the study employs a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design. A total of 317 college students participated in the study in return for course credits. The study findings suggest that congruence, identification, and consumers’ attribution styles indeed have impacts on consumers’ attitude toward ad, brand, or purchase intention. The study also finds that there is a relationship between congruence (low vs. high congruence) and attribution styles (internal vs. external). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Can a Celebrity Serve as an Issue‐Relevant Argument in the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

While celebrity endorsement has been traditionally perceived as a peripheral cue in the elaboration likelihood model, several conceptual studies suggest otherwise that it may play a significant role in delivering issue‐relevant information when celebrity–product congruence exists. The current study provides empirical evidence that a celebrity indeed serves as an issue‐relevant argument by investigating the interaction effects between endorser–product congruence and product involvement on consumer responses in two different match‐up conditions. Moderated regression analysis results indicated that product involvement strengthened the effect of expertise‐based endorser–product congruence on consumer responses. However, the relationship between attractiveness‐based endorser–product congruence and consumer responses generated insignificant results. Research findings entail that a celebrity persuades consumers through the central route when the expert image in particular fits well with the endorsed product. Further analyses indicated that attitude toward the brand mediated the relationship between attitude toward the advertisement and purchase intention in both match‐up environments.     

The relevance of irrelevance in brand communication

Brand managers strive to achieve an outstanding position in the psyche of the user by differentiating the product and service. In order to do so, brands are now often promoted by communications that focus on a trivial attribute difference. The current study tests both how the use of such an irrelevant attribute affects the perceptions of the consumer and how they rate the brand when the irrelevance of the attribute is previously revealed. The results of a controlled experiment (n = 894) show that the use of irrelevant attributes generally has a positive effect on buying behavior and that this effect is obtained even when the actual irrelevance is previously proven to the consumer. Further, the results are consistent across a variety of outcome variables, including attention, perceived uniqueness, price fairness, attitude toward the brand, and intention to buy the brand. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The moderating impact of perceived globalness on consumers’ purchase intentions for copycats: The pleasure of hurting global brands

Copycats or “me‐too” brands imitate prominent features of market leaders with the intention to benefit from consumers’ positive associations of the imitated brand. However, the imitated market leader can be perceived as being local (=in‐group) or global (=out‐group). Employing social identity theory, Study 1 examined the interaction between copycat strategy and perceived globalness of the brand, showing that consumers have higher purchase intentions for global copycats versus a local counterpart. Study 2 shows that the interacting effect of copycat strategy and perceived globalness is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Further, authors demonstrate that a global copycat elicit greater schadenfreude (vs. local brand), which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions. Subsequent mediation analysis shows that ethnocentric consumers experience schadenfreude upon encountering copycats of global brands, which in turn increases purchase intention, whereas low ethnocentric consumers show higher purchase intentions for local differentiated brands because they deem a copycat strategy as unacceptable. Finally, Study 3 examines whether the results from Studies 1 and 2 continue to hold for theme copycats.     

Usefulness,Enjoyment, and Self‐Image Congruence: The Adoption of e‐Book Readers

One challenge when launching new technologies is to overcome consumer resistance to change so as to accelerate market acceptance. This is the case of e‐book readers. The present study investigates individuals’ perceptions of the utilitarian and hedonic values of such devices and their congruence with self‐image as determinants of adoption. Additionally, consumer profile and familiarity with the new technology as a whole influence individuals’ perceptions of this particular technology and its congruence with self‐image. Findings show that perceived enjoyment and self‐image congruence complement perceived usefulness in forging a favorable attitude toward e‐book readers and adoption intention, and that knowledge proves essential in the adoption process. Moreover, people highly involved with reading tend to perceive e‐book readers as useless, which hampers their adoption.     

Building influencers' credibility on Instagram: Effects on followers’ attitudes and behavioral responses toward the influencer

Collaborations between influencers and brands have become increasingly popular in recent years. Previous research has mainly focused on influencer marketing as a commercial action designed to enhance followers' perceptions and reactions toward promoted brands, ignoring the consequences of these promotional actions on influencers' credibility and their relationships with their followers. This research sheds light on the topic by exploring how influencers' promotional actions affect their credibility, and followers' attitudes and behavioral responses toward the influencer (i.e., to continue following, imitate, and recommend them to other users). A study addressed to the followers of a popular influencer was carried out to test the research model. The results showed that perceived influencer-product congruence positively affects followers' perceptions of the credibility of, and attitude toward, influencers, and negatively affects perceptions of paid communication. Followers' perceptions that influencers have been paid to take part in promotional activities harms their credibility; however, credibility is essential for generating positive attitudes toward the influencer. Finally, both perceived credibility and attitude foster positive behavioral responses toward the influencer; influencers must enhance these factors to retain their influencing capacity. This research provides managerial implications for influencers and brands that can help enhance followers’ experiences when exposed to promotions on social media.     

Celebrity endorsement: How celebrity–brand–user personality congruence affects brand attitude and purchase intention

The present study provides and tests a conceptual framework aimed at comparing the relative effectiveness of celebrity–user, brand–celebrity, and user–brand personality congruence on brand attitude and brand purchase intention (BPI) thereafter. The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of consumers (n = 431) located across India. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with mediation approach. The results indicate that while user–brand and brand–celebrity personality congruence have a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention, celebrity–user congruence does not. Further, brand attitude is found to be a partial mediator on the relationship between the pair-wise personality congruence on BPI. The findings have major implications for marketers in understanding the significance of personality congruence among celebrity–brand–user in the formation of brand attitude and purchase intention that can be used in positioning and in increasing the advertising effectiveness of brands using celebrity endorsement. The present study is a pioneer in contributing to the celebrity endorsement literature by investigating the relative impact of three pairs of personality congruence: celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user, on brand attitude and BPI, thereby supporting the applicability of McCracken's Meaning Transfer Model [McCracken (1989), The Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3) 310–321) and the Hierarchy-of-effects model (Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Journal of Marketing, 25 (6) 59–62].     

Investigating the impact of brand vs cause interaction on cause related advertisements

Cause-related Marketing (CRM) strategies have been widely implemented by numerous brands in their communication with customers through advertisements. This research employs four quasi-experimental studies to understand how brands and cause related variables interact to impact attitude towards advertisements and brands. Study I (n = 623) seek to understand the influence of brand related variables, namely, brand familiarity, brand importance, and brand association on the attitude towards advertisements and brands. Study II (n = 722) shows the moderating effect of advertisement type (CRM vs non-CRM) on the relationships connecting branding variables to advertisement and brand attitude. In Study III (n = 637), the effect of cause related dimension, namely, cause familiarity, cause importance, and cause brand fit on the attitude towards advertisement and brands is studied. Finally, study IV (n = 549) shows the interaction effect of brand and cause related dimensions on the attitude towards advertisements and brands. Results indicate cause brand fit to be the most significant variable affecting attitudes followed by brand association, brand importance, and cause importance. Cause importance also interacted with brand importance and brand association to cause a positive and negative magnifying effect on the advertisement attitudes respectively.